This invention relates to baseball and, more particularly, to a target system and method for training a player to bunt a baseball to predetermined zones or targets and also for protecting an infield area of a baseball field.
Baseball is a game played with a wooden bat and a hard or soft ball by two opposing teams of nine players, each team playing alternately in the field and at bat. When a ball is hit by a player at bat, the player runs a course of four bases laid out in a diamond pattern in order to score, which is why it is important for batters to be proficient at hitting a baseball.
One type of hit is the full swing hit and another type of hit is the bunt. During the bunt, a pitched ball is hit with less than a full swing and with an upper hand of a player supporting the middle of the bat, so that the ball rolls slowly in front of the infielders.
During batting practice, a player practices bunting softly such that the ball rolls slowly in front of the area directly in front of home plate. This is sometimes referred to as a sacrifice bunt and is designed to advance a runner from first base to second base at the expense of a sacrificial ground out by the batter. Some batters are so adept at bunting a baseball that they can bunt the ball for a hit. This type of bunt is typically hit along and in front of the third baseline in “fair” territory. Whether a bunt is a sacrifice bunt or a bunt-for-hit bunt is usually determined by the direction of the bunted ball and its rolling speed.
During batting practice, each player takes a turn at hitting baseballs pitched to him or her by a pitcher. Batting practice takes place at daily team practice sessions and before each game. Typically, each team averages about twenty players. During each practice session, each player takes at least ten full swings and three practice bunts, resulting in at least 200 hits that take place per session and 400 before a game, which represents the total number of hits for both teams.
Many of the balls hit in the full swing session take a downward trajectory, thus hitting the turf area in the infield inside the base paths. In baseball, this is called a “grounder.” It is believed that up to half of the hit balls are grounders. As a result, the grass in the infield area directly in front of home base is subjected to great wear and stress during each pre-game practice period. Added to this pre-game wear is the wear of the weekly 500–800 balls impacting the same infield grass area during daily practice of the home team. The overall stress of these continued impacts, in aggregate, results in the degradation of the quality of turf in the infield area directly in front of the home base batting area.
To combat this damage to the infield area, many teams use a mesh fabric to cover the area in front of home base during batting practice. To keep the mesh fabric down in the wind and to protect the players from tripping over the edges, the infield mesh protectors were anchored to the ground via steel stakes through grommets in the edge of the protector spaced approximately three feet apart.
To help batters aim their bunts in practice, cones similar to traffic cones have been used. The cones are placed in the infield where a batter would attempt to hit a bunt at the cone. This type of product has not been commercially successful because of the potential safety problem in that during a full swing portion of a batting practice session, a ground ball glancing off a target could injure a defensive player.
There is needed, therefore, a system and method for improving bunting proficiency and, if desired, for providing protection for the infield area.